Hi folks, I have been surfing this forum for a few days now and decided to join the community here as you all seem to be very nice and informative. I am comtemplating setting up a forum extending from my hobby website below. I am looking at a few forum softwares: PHPBB, Vbulletin and Invision Power Board, etc. trying to select the one that I can grow with it. Of course I know that Vbulletin and Invision and are more stable than PHPBB as they are not a freeware and I see that this forum is built on Vbulletin. But I am seeing PHPBB popularity is increasing as well so is there any good reasons to invest with PHPBB? So, please share your opinions - pros and cons and why. If you know any other forum software, let's hear it too.

Mr. Moderator - if I am posted this in the wrong place, just let me know - it is only my learning curve with this forum.
Thanks you

vinyl-junkie

07-21-2006, 03:18 AM

Here (http://www.thinkofit.com/webconf/forumsoft.htm) is a list of forum software - some free, some not, with a brief description of each. Hope it helps.

AnkorWatt

07-22-2006, 01:02 AM

Here (http://www.thinkofit.com/webconf/forumsoft.htm) is a list of forum software - some free, some not, with a brief description of each. Hope it helps.

Vinyl-junkie, thank you for the list. I am also looking for opinions and thoughts about the software. Because we have too many software to choose from, that is kind of difficult to make up mind. Please others - if you have any thoughts or experience, please share.

Thank thesavior - Definitely I check it out. Does it come together with Gallery or you integrated it? By the way when I clicked on gallery - I got error message here http://www.powerwd.com/forum/gallery.php

thesavior

07-23-2006, 08:53 PM

The new version (2.2) Which is supposed to be released this week comes with alot of new stuff, and they fixed that darn gallery problem. But yah, gallery comes standard.

KevinG

07-24-2006, 12:03 AM

i'd go with vbulletin.com, i think their the most reputable and you get all the support framework plus a lot of websites offering plugins and skins.

besides, vbulletin powers this forum :thumbsup:

srule_

10-21-2007, 04:51 PM

If you are looking for a free option i would deffanitly go with SMF (simple machine forums). I use to use phpbb, but once i tyed SMF i like it much more! I find it is easier to use for both the admins and the memebers. It is also eas to custimize.

CaptainB

10-21-2007, 05:53 PM

I would like to recomment phpBB too.

It is very easy to modify its look and "inoperate" into your current design/site layout. It has a very nice and easy to use control panel, where you can control each user, set forum permissions, ban, delete, upload, change colors etc etc etc. Also, many people are used to it, so it might be easy for the new user to post.

I have only one time, out of the 4 phpBB installations I've had, experienced problems with spam-bots. And that was the forum I did not have FULL control over aka it was hosted with a free forum host site.

So, I would go phpBB if you want something free, OR I. powerboard if you want something paid.